One of those years when the significant laurels of Upper Dublin High’s girls lacrosse team were rested upon.

For the past five seasons the Cardinals had won the Suburban One League’s American Conference without losing a single conference game.

But with a star-studded senior class gone and few varsity returnees on the premises, the expectations for the Cardinals this year dangled somewhere between few and little.

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So why will the Cardinals be chasing their sixth straight undefeated conference title and their 81st consecutive conference victory when they close out their league slate Wednesday at Upper Merion?

The answer is still a bit of a mystery to Cardinals head coach Dee Cross.

“Absolutely,” said Cross, when asked if Upper Dublin’s run this year had her shaking her head. “Graduating the senior class that we did, and with Springfield coming back into the league and with Wissahickon bringing back a lot of starters from last year, I don’t think anyone expected this.”

But it has happened, and Cross has some theories.

“The girls knew they had big shoes to fill,” Cross said. “But we’ve had a lot of pleasant surprises this year, and I’m happy about that.”

The biggest surprise, Cross said, has been the maturation of the Cardinals’ defense.

“Really, we had only one player, Anna Petrucci, with any varsity experience,” the coach said, “and we had players like Alycia Hildebrand, a junior who had never played varsity, Julia Heller and Kayla McAneney, who had played very little and never had played together. And they’ve worked extremely well together.

“Then we’ve had players like Sam Boyd stepping up. Sam is the only junior who got a varsity letter last year. She’s a real leader, the type of player who just loves to play, and she’s played real well for us.

“We’ve had people like Taylor D’Ginto, Rachel DiFrangia and Julie (Cross) step up and become our primary scorers, and our goaltender, Sarah Gallagher, a sophomore who saw time as a freshman, has been very steady.”

And somehow, this seemingly mismatched collection of little experience and no experience has grown into a winning team.

“We knew we had lost a lot of starters,” said sophomore Julie Cross, “and that we were going through a rebuilding process. But from the first week of practice, we felt we could do it.

“Once we found out where everyone was going to play, we meshed very easily.”

“We came into the season strong,” D’Ginto added. “We knew we had lost a lot of people and that we had to pick up the slack.

“And we’ve worked real well together. A bunch of different girls have stepped up and everyone has been contributing.”

Plus, D’Ginto added, there was another factor.

“We have the motivation of not losing,” the junior attack said. “From the beginning we wanted to keep our undefeated title and we want to go far in the playoffs, too.”

“I think they wanted to prove they had the same ability (as their predecessors),” Coach Cross said, “and that they could play together.

“We didn’t have the chance to go on our bonding trip like we usually do because we had games to play during that time (spring break), but they just kind of bonded during practice.”

The result has been another team, on the brink of another unbeaten league season, that may be short on star power but that has been long on teamwork and chemistry.

And coaching, too?

“Nah,” Coach Cross laughed. “I just take what I get and do the best I can.”